Car Moon

The Union of Concerned Scientist, a non-profit science advocacy group in the U.S., has released its second annual Hybrid Scorecard. The organisation criticised hybrid car manufacturers for not delivering on the technology’s promise, for placing performance above fuel efficiency and environmental benefit and burdening hybrids with features that put them out of the price range of average Americans.

A total of 34 hybrid vehicles from the 2011 to 2012 model year were tested for their fuel efficiency, environmental impact, value-for-money and their so-called “forced-feature premium”. The latter is features that don’t improve fuel efficiency but probably make the cars more appealing to money-conscious consumers.

Selling a car through advertising isn’t as easy as you might think. What good is it showing your product nimbly taking on Alpine twists and turns when your competitors are doing the same thing? Here are two ads that don’t really break the mould, but try something a little different. Read more »

The Lexus CT200h compact hybrid will debut in racing car guise at an endurance race this weekend at the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit. Entered by Gazoo Racing, the same organization that races the Lexus LFA, the CT200h will compete in the Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy. Around 200 cars will line up at the start of the six hour-race. Read more »

The Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California, is one of the most iconic hotels in the United States, nay the world. Built in the 1920s, it has since featured in countless movies, television shows and music videos. So it figures that sooner or later someone would get the bright spark idea of using it as a giant billboard for their product.

Enter the world of Lexus who, with the help of some cutting-edge 3D projection mapping technology, turned the side of the Roosevelt into a Michael Bay Transformers-esque advertisement for its new CT 200h hybrid hatchback. Walls shift around and rotate; gaping holes appear and flowers, roadways and other objects all spring to life out of the eighty plus year old façade.

Making its debut at the Big Apple is a concept for a high-performance version of the Lexus CT 200h hybrid hatchback conceived and executed in partnership with Fox Marketing.

Starting with a production CT 200h, the tuner modified the 1.8-liter gasoline engine by adding an Eaton supercharger along with a Climax Racing intake manifold and a Yonaka air to water intercooler among other upgrades to push output to an estimated 300HP. Additionally, Fox Marketing said it has boosted the factory batter power, but did not provide further details.

Lexus will be showing off a wilder CT 200h prepared by parent company Toyota's tuning partner Five-Axis at the upcoming 2011 Chicago Auto Show, which runs for the public from February 11 to 20. The highly-modified Five Axis Project CT will be dressed in a custom made wide body kit with hybrid's bad-boy appearance further enhanced by the JDSU “Dark Passage” paint, the lowered ride height (thanks to a TEIN Flex coilover suspension system), and custom 19-inch FIVE:AD forged alloy wheels.

Lexus has added the new CT 200h dedicated hybrid model to its Japanese line-up in an attempt to boost flagging sales in its home market. The company's first entry in the premium-compact segment is also its cheapest offering with prices in Japan ranging from 3.55 million yen to 4.33 million yen (about US$42,600 to US$52,000).

Lexus has dropped pricing details for its all-new CT-200h ahead of the hybrid model's U.S. market launch in early March. The five-door model will be priced from $29,120, plus $875 for delivery, processing and handling, which comes out to a total of $29,995 [about €22,450] making it the least expensive car in the Lexus lineup in the U.S.

“For just $1,000 more than the cost of a non-luxury hybrid, buyers can indulge in a CT 200h with our proven Lexus Hybrid Drive technology,” said Mark Templin, group vice president and general manager, Lexus Division. “Lexus hybrids currently make up 90 percent of all luxury hybrid sales in the U.S., so you can imagine how excited we are to continue our leadership in this market with the CT 200h.”

Lexus chose this week's Australian International Motor Show (AIMS) for the world premiere of its CT 200h F Sport model ahead of the car's introduction to Australia in the first half of 2011 as well other markets around the world.

As with other Lexus models, the F Sport treatment adds a number of visual and performance goodies to the firm's dedicated hybrid. On the outside, the CT 200h gets a sportier looking front bumper along with a honeycomb upper grille, beefier side skirts, and a reworked rear bumper that incorporates a diffuser.

Lexus wants to give people a chance to call the shots in a new video campaign focusing on its upcoming 2011 CT 200h five-door hatchback. It's called "Dark Ride".

The luxury marque is making a short action film with a recognizable star racing around it a new model. Now you're thinking, "Wait, didn't BMW do this a while back? And Audi (kind of), more recently?"

Ah, but those films weren't interactive...

The all-new Lexus CT 200h premium hybrid hatchback, which had its world premiere at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show today, will be sold in the U.S.A. after all as the news was officially confirmed today by the Japanese automaker.

Lexus' second dedicated hybrid model after the recently launched HS 250h and fifth hybrid vehicle in its U.S. line-up will be on display for the first time in North America at the 2010 New York Auto Show that runs from March 31 through April 11. European as well as North American sales will start early next year.

Official information for Lexus's Euro-fighting hybrid, the CT 200h, has just come out of the Press Release closet. Riding on 17-inch wheels mounted to a newly-developed front-wheel drive platform, the smallest Lexus ever is powered by a 1.8-liter gasoline engine mated to an electric motor with power (no performance figures have been released) going through an E-CVT transmission with, surprise surprise, settings that include ECO, SPORT, and NORMAL. But these are all facts we already know.

Spacially, the CT comes in at 4,320 mm long and 1,765 mm wide, with a 2,600 mm wheelbase. That helps Lexus' Audi A3-fighter provide owners with 345 liters (12.2 cubic feet) of cargo room with the rear seats up, or 700 liters (24.7 cubic feet) with them folded down.

Either Lexus has a leakage problem on its hands (less likely) or the company is following unconventional methods (more likely...) to drum up interest on its new CT 200h hybrid premium hatchback before its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show.

Following a trio of 'spy shots' that were sent to Carscoop and other sites in January and a teaser shot earlier this month, our friends over at World Car Fans today received the official brochure of the CT 200h in their mailbox.

The brochure pictures confirm what most of us suspected upon seeing last year's LF-Ch concept - that the styling of the production version would be severely toned down. The result is a much less aggressive looking C-segment hatch.

At 4,320mm long, 1,765mm wide and 1,430mm tall, the five-door model is more compact that the Toyota Prius but slightly longer than the Audi A3 Sportback (4,238mm x 1,765 x 1,421mm respectively).

Only six months after the presentation of the LF-Ch concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show last September, Lexus has announced that it will unveil the production version of the car that bears the name CT 200h at the Geneva Salon in the beginning of March.

Billed as the first full hybrid vehicle in the premium compact segment, the five-door model is designed to go against the Audi A3 and the BMW 1-Series hatchbacks with Lexus claiming that it will offer "new levels of refinement and attention to detail, without compromising style or driving pleasure".

Details remain scarce, as the only piece of information we have up until now is that the CT 200h will equipped with second-generation Lexus Hybrid Drive technology and that it can be driven exclusively in all-electric mode.